My Green Corner

It took almost two years to Elizabeth Cochran to achieve acceptance of her innovative idea of monitoring earthquakes. It was in the year 2006 when Elizabeth Cochran, a Seismologist and Assistance Professor in the Department of Earth Science at the University of California, Riverside first conceptualized the idea of an interlinked computers, the “Quake-Catcher-Network”. Scientists across the world have started accepting the potential of this initiative to save millions of lives at risk during an earthquake.

This innovative concept is based on involving everyone by simply using their laptop computers. Every such laptop would be part of a giant international network of computers which will be specifically designed for measuring dense earthquake related data. This will help in monitoring earthquakes.

Specific software for linking all the computers is almost ready and would be publicly released during this summer only. It will be completely free software for everyone. Elizabeth Cochran with her colleagues Jesse Lawrence at the Stanford University, and Carl Christensen, a software architect has jointly developed this software. It will be an extra-ordinary opportunity for everyone who owns a laptop computer.

When publicly released for open participation, this software would be easily accessible at the website BIONC. Elizabeth Cochran and her colleagues have planned to test the software further prior to its public release. At present this software is available on BIONC with a very limited release exclusively for some specific purposes and other scientific explorations among the selected testers and users.

The “Quake-Catcher-Network” project costs almost nothing to the team of scientists. The whole idea is based upon motion sensors known as the ‘accelerometers’. These accelerometers are extensively used in the present day laptop computers as popular safety devices. Almost every laptop computer has such tiny devices in place already. It is really an inexpensive device and therefore it saves a lot of money to the scientists as well.

The “Quake-Catcher-Network” project revolves around an innovative technique of “distributed computing”. It is a specific methodology which facilitates different parts of a computer program to run concurrently on two or even more computers at the same time. All such type of linked computers would be in communication with the help of a dedicated central server over a specifically designed network.

The “Quake-Catcher-Network” project will use the laptops as the earthquake monitors in very simple terms. A network thus created and established will have a dense grid of local detectors all around the earth. As soon as an earthquake strikes, an early warning will be signaled through the interconnected network with the help of internet connections within a time of just 15-20 seconds. All the neighboring cities and other areas would thus be enabled to initiate safeguard measures well in time. The early warnings will be initiated with the initiation of earliest feeble tremors or the seismic waves.”We are turning laptop accelerometers in to earthquake monitors”, says Elizabeth Cochran.

The project has started taking shape already and nearly 300 people situated in the different part of the world are already actively participating in the “Quake-Catcher-Network” project. Once the project is launched publicly during this summer the level of participation is expected to grow exponentially.

Presently applicable earthquake reporting techniques and methods have several gaps which act as potential barriers in correct forecasting and establishing an earliest possible warning system. This innovative project will hopefully fill in the gaps and spaces existing in the current seismic network spread across the globe. The numbers of reporting seismic stations are extremely lower than what is required.”With the public’s participation in the ‘quake-catcher-network’ we can have a lot more stations recording earthquakes, allowing for a better early warning system”, expects Elizabeth Cochran.

There are many places around the world where no such type of early warning system exists in place and this often results in heavy damage and devastations of human lives and assets. For instance, in the Southern California alone, there is not more than 350 such type of early earthquake warning systems. All these systems are based on analyzing underground sensors data. This methodology is not much effective as it often gets late in reporting and by the time no sufficient time left for initiating safety preparedness measures. The situation is even worse than this in other parts of the globe and there are many belts and zones where no such system has been established at all.

The “Quake -Catcher-Network” would make it possible to process the data well in time exactly within seconds of its arrival. Major advantage of this network is its power of stretching to any part and region of the world because it is primarily based on just two things, the laptop computer and an internet connection. It is almost inexpensive and therefore users will never hesitate in participating and it also does not require any CPU resource, hence more portable.

Elizabeth Cochran explains this in more simple way. She says that a laptop usually remains inactive for at least three minutes before the system starts up.”This is to get rid of any noise in the data and to ensure that any movement the laptop’s accelerometer is detecting is indeed out of the ordinary”, she says. Present sets of working parameters are more favorable for the Apple laptops and therefore in the beginning only these laptops have been considered to be invited to participate in the project. Elizabeth Cochran and her expert research scientist’s team are also working on to include all other types of computers and laptops in the “Quake-Catcher-Network”.

Efforts are also on for developing an accelerometer that could be plugged in to a desktop or a laptop exactly in the way as a normal USB flash drive. This system and facilitation will in turn provide an advantage of having less interference from typing on the keyboard. This facility in place would also enable “creating a more robust and reliable system which can use the computers running the software all of the time”, says Cochran. Data thus collected would be freely available for all other scientific research publicly also.

On the basis of such collected data it would be far easier to study the nature of propagation of seismic waves in the ground. Travelling velocity of seismic waves provides useful information and interpretation pertaining to possible seismic hazards and other devastation effects as well as understanding the structure and behavior of the earth.” The denser our network, the clearer will be the picture of what is happening at each step in time”, says Cochran.

A series of data interpretation, analysis, and representation could easily be converted in to a movie type with the help of numerous participating computers around the world. This movie will clearly show the propagation of seismic waves underground all across its path of travel within the earth subsurface. This would certainly prove as an effective method of studying seismic wave’s behavior and their probable impacts on the ground.

Elizabeth Cochran is also planning to include school children as participant in this project. “We think this would be an excellent project for students to take an interest in,” she said, “so we’re hoping we’ll see more of their participation”.

Binary Quantum Qubits

A clear vision of ‘Quantum Computers’ could be better understood by comparison from the present day computers. It may be your desktop also. All such machines including even the supercomputers of today are based on the binary digits system. All these computers store information as strings of binary numbers. In fact there are only two digits ‘0′ and ‘1′ known as ‘bits’ that are used for such purposes.

All types of information including words, numbers, sounds, pictures, movies are cleverly coded in the form of these two binary digits, the bits. Strings of these binary digits are arranged and processed by adding, subtracting, and comparing the number chains. Every bit of such type of coded information can easily be stored in a tiny box, the capacitor, a dab of electric charge or in a miniscule fragment of magnetic film. Storage of information can be on temporary or permanent basis. It can be well understood as if there is some information then it means ‘1′ and if the box is empty then it will be represented as ‘0′.

Quantum computer would also be doing almost the same representation with numbers and binary digits. The only difference would be with the size of bits. Here everything would be in terms of  ‘Nano-sized particles’. These nano-sized particles would be representing a unit like an atom and would also represent a storage box. Here the bits would never remain as usual bits. These will be denoted as the “quantum bits” or the “qubits”. An atom spinning in one way would represent “1″ and if it spins the other way it will be represented as “0″.

Quantum Superposition

In nano-terms a qubit could represent both “0″ and “1″ at the same time. It is one of the major differentiations between quantum computers and present day computer systems. This unusual superimposition of binary digits is known as the “quantum superposition”. Here the probability of occurring a binary digit as “0″or”1″ would be equal for both depending upon the nature of information and the type of superposition. Meaning thereby the probability of holding a “1″ or “0″ is equal for a bit. One would be required to investigate in depth in order to find out the exact value the bit holds. Any investigation in to this type of determination will surely disturb the string arrangements of a computer and the machine would stop computing any further.

Quantum Physics, an Obvious Tool

This indicates a problem as well as a solution at the same time. Quantum physics has to answer for a solution for this stoppage of functioning as the investigation should not stop the machine. But at the same time if this same mechanism is converted intelligently then it would be almost impossible for anyone to crack or break the codes as encryption would be intact. This will help at the best to maintain almost unbreakable security and safety firewalls making every type of communication and online transaction completely confidential in future. Quantum computers would certainly address the present day problem more intelligently.

Qubit, the Mega-Warehouse

Encryption and safety of data could be more advantageously applied with the help of “quantum superposition” concept. This type of superposition would require extremely large numbers to represent any information for describing even a very small number of qubits. This seems to be more stable model. Based on the doubling of the rate of information every after certain time period according to the Moor’s law, for every qubit added to this assembly would double up for that particular qubit. For instance, only 100 qubits more than two billion numbers would be required to describe and represent the collective content. In other words, just 100 qubits would be more than sufficient to store huge loads of information and this will be exponentially higher than what the present day computers memory can hold on. Hence the quantum computers would be future memory mega-warehouses when it comes to storage.

At a Lightening Speed

The advantages of quantum computers are not just limited to the memory and storage issues .It will change the present day programming methods thoroughly. Today a computer program is required to operate in accordance to the stored information in a pre-defined sequence, one bit at a time. Just imagine when this sequence is synchronized with one bit at a time and we are able to perform billions of calculations per second with present day computers and supercomputers then what would the scenario when we will be using the quantum computers.

Parallel Processing, Just Think Of It

A quantum computer can easily process huge data and information using all the strings of qubits simultaneously and not just one bit at a time. It is also known as the “parallel processing”. The results are even beyond imagination this way. This can be imagined in a different way. Imagine that there are millions of desktop types of computers are working on the same problem. All these computers are working side by side or linked with a single network across the world and even all these machines are working with just a single processor! This is what the quantum computers have potential for.

Big Number Factorization: Not an Imagination Anymore

Compared to the present day supercomputers the quantum computers would benefit us with enormous speed of processing information. It becomes very clear that even the fastest and most advanced types of supercomputers of today would need years or decades to crack and break in to coding of a simple quantum computer. The “big number factorization” presents unimaginable possibilities.

The quantum computers era is about to begin shortly and we all will be experiencing an initial feel of this new computing while the days are not far now. Machines of coming times would also be different than to what we use currently. Quantum computers and its related technology will certainly change the way we compute today.

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 Present day computers have evolved with the growth in technology and have gained tremendous speed for performing several functions simultaneously. But the human mind has an endless and infinite imagination with unlimited scopes for new and innovative explorations. Stepping-up the power of computers is also one of those infinite probabilities.

As the technology is advancing a demand for more download speed is also growing. Computer users are now eager to have more graphics with advanced features and they even also demand more useful software. This has also added up an element of security while the online trades are on growth march.

Supercomputers are super space occupiers also covering an entire room exclusively. These super-machines are heavy in demand for specific purposes including weather and climatic studies, designing super machines like aircrafts, designing computer chips and several others. But these machines cannot be used by an individual with its convenience just like a desktop.

“Quantum Computers” are the right answer to this limitation. The concept of ‘quantum computers’ is emerging now days. It is believed that the quantum computers of future would give an extended advantage to an individual and it will be possible to use the high-end machines just like a desktop or a notebook.

Quantum Codes: Hard Nuts to Crack

As the Wordpress quotes “code is poetry”, it’s going to be the same for quantum computing as well. Now day’s experts are discussing various aspects related to code-cracking. It’s more like cryptography in a sense and this will determine the slicky computer’s future.

Money and its related transactions through the internet are exponentially growing. Few known facts related to this mechanism generally reveal that such types of online transactions are highly protected by almost unbreakable security codes. This is what ‘encryption’ is all about. Majority of these encryptions are based on large numbers arranged in discrete patterns. There could be even more than 400 digits specifying a particular number used for encryption. These numbers require breaking down in to smaller prime numbers to create big numbers. These smaller numbers could even be multiplied together and this would result in to more complex encryption, really tough to crack with.

With smarter computers of today this task has been made easy and we can say that our money transactions on the internet are comparatively safer than yester times. Cracking such an encrypted code would take any present day smart computer quite long time.

“Quantum Computers” on the other side would be far smarter and would be able to crack such complex codes and encryptions within few hours or within minutes even. Will these codes be equally safer then? An answer to this question would certainly be negative. Faster and more complex encryptions and other safety measures would be required to make it even tougher for the future quantum computers. Future computing with quantum computers would need new mathematics to device more complex codes.

Quantum Leap with Every 18 Months

The “Moor’s Law” is not simply a law in itself. It also helps framing an observation of past happenings and future projections equally. At least an immediate future can easily be projected with the help of the “Moor’s Law”.

Applying this law to a specific case, it can be observed with the computer chips, numbers, and the space. According to this law the total number of components that could be squeezed on to a computer chip for the purpose of data storage or data processing would easily be doubled up after a period of each 18 months. This doubling up happens simply because of the design, manufacturing, and other technological advancements and improvements. It is now almost three decades that the phenomenon is going on. It used be just a few thousand transistors or capacitors that would fit on a piece of fingernail sized silicon in the year 1975. And after a little more than thirty years, we find placement of hundreds of millions of such miniscule transistors and capacitors on to the same sized piece of silicon. Enormous quantity of information and database can now easily be stored on computers. Various calculations at tremendously faster speed are now performed and the rate approaches to billions in just one second. This all has enhanced the powers of computers of this age.

Chip manufacturers are facing a bigger challenge now. They are pressed hard to invent smaller sized components. It is almost every 18 months that the size is reduced to half and this testifies the authenticity of Moor’s Law.

Its All about Quantum and Nano

Sometime in the seventies, the smallest dimensions of a typical computer chip used to be around ten microns. It is almost 10 millionth of a meter. It is also equivalent to normal width of the connecting wire. And now is the age of “nano” where 100 nanometer or even less has become a normal size. One hundred nanometers are equivalent to 100 billionth part of a meter. This miniscule size of chips has reduced the size of electronic elements even smaller than a normal virus. Human hair is even one thousand times more than this size. Customer satisfaction has become a major factor and this has also forced manufacturers to downsize with enhanced performance levels.

Would there be any change in this scenario? Or this would go on in this same manner? Experts opine that if the current trends are continued we would certainly land up in the middle of a crisis one day. One day suddenly some kind of “quantum uncertainty” will crop up and the present day computer chips would not be behaving in the way they do now days. Experts are of the views that extending the Moor’s law based calculations even further clearly indicate that by the end of year 2020 the present day circuit elements would be as small as an atom. And the stage when bits of electric charges storing information, databases, and drive processing power would start leaking will come even well before that.

Manufacturing circuit elements so small in dimensions would be practically impossible. It has started posing many problems before the chip technologists with even the present day growing requirements and its costs related to manufacturing facilities and productions has grown exponentially.

Nanotechnology is the only ray of hope which can solve this problem .Advancements based on stepping process would not be beneficial anymore. A combination of quantum physics and nanotechnology would yield better results. And this is how a new generation of computing will begin with this new name ,”Quantum Computing” and soon we will be witnessing a paradigm shift towards the “Quantum Computers” .

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